Flight/Origin-Destination: AC 18 HKG-YVR
Date: 9/24/2010
Cabin: Y
Status: UA 1P/*G

Pre departure
Was check in quick and efficient? Yes. I was connecting from a separate BR TPE-HKG flight (and ticket) and therefore only needed to check in at HKG for my BPs. I had considered using the transfer area at HKG but since I needed to head into town to run an errand, I decided to just check in at the check in counter on the departures level.
Did you use priority security (if eligible) and if so, was it quick and efficient? N/A. I don't think there's a priority security area at HKG.
Did you use the Maple Leaf lounge and if so, any feedback in regards to service, food and drinks? N/A. Obviously was eligible to use one of three lounges (UA RCC, SQ SKL & TG) but didn't do so due to lack of time and a preference to have a real meal instead of lounge snacks. After all, none of the lounges serve curry beef brisket rice, do they? FWIW, it would've been a nice touch for the contracted agent working check in to let me know where the lounge was, though. Perhaps I'm expecting too much?
Was priority boarding offered (if applicable to your status) and efficient? Yes, very efficient. The regular lines were long, especially with a document check. I walked up to the elite line on the left and was through in no time.
If there was a delay, did the gate agent provide timely updates? N/A

Onboard - Y cabin:
Were the crew professional & well groomed? Well groomed? Sure. Professional... sure. Right off the bat, I noticed during boarding that besides the crew located at the door we boarded from, there were no greetings.

I was miffed because while seated in the left aisle seat of the middle seats, I was completely skipped in regards to the first beverage run. By the time I realised what had happened, the cart was long down the aisle. If anyone is wondering why I didn't speak up earlier, it's because I had been snapped at on my YVR-HKG flight a month earlier for asking for my trash to be picked up when I mistakenly thought they had skipped me. In addition, the tone of one of the FAs when helping with a heavy bag left something to be desired. An older person was having slight trouble getting their bag into the overhead bin and the FA saw what was happening, gruffly said "If you can't lift your own bag, next time you should check it in" and then helped to put the bag into the bin. It was really the tone rather than the message that irked me.

Last but not least, napkins and chopsticks were handed out for the mid-flight cup noodle snack but turbulence interfered with the serving of said cup noodles. Completely understood the decision to delay that service but sadly, the cup noodles never appeared when the turbulence stopped. Annoyingly, that left a couple of hundred people in Y holding onto useless pairs of wooden chopsticks, which were never collected. To give AC some credit, sandwiches and a packet of cookies had been handed out along with the chopsticks, so there was a mid-flight snack, just not a complete mid-flight snack.

If there was a delay, were you provided with timely updates? N/A.
Was the IFE activated on the ground? Yes.
Approximately how long after take off did it take for the first meal service/Onboard cafe to begin? It felt longer than I liked but unfortunately I don't have an accurate idea of exactly how long it was.
How was the quality of the meal/Onboard cafe? Much better than YVR-HKG. Had the beef pasta for the first meal, which came with some carrots and green beans. In addition, the pasta was some sort of spinach pasta, which was nice. For breakfast, the cheese omlette and sausage were both good. Midflight snack of a sandwich was dry and mediocre.
Did the cabin crew offer water regularly throughout the flight? Semi-regularly. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt in regards to the constant turbulence that affected us from HKG all the way until we were past Japan.

Post departure
If you have checked baggage, did it arrive within reasonable period of time? Yes, despite a lack of priority tags since BR had checked my luggage through to PDX while in TPE.

Overall experience/any other comments
The three little annoyances I wrote above combined to make this my most mediocre AC flight. Not awful but still below the standard I expect from AC. I'll still be flying AC but a to this crew.